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Sligo, Ireland

On the last Friday of June, the HYC witnessed an unusual event when Brian, John (a trusted ex-club member) and Michal met and started the load up John’s famous green-grey 90s Land Rover Defender 110, aka “Molly”. With cylinders and luggage on the roof and our Humber Assault 5m RIB on tow we headed to Ireland.

One day later we arrived at Mullaghmore – our final destination. Each of us got our own room with good soundproofing – which was good to have given the ability of some of the trip participants to snore with the power of a chain saw.

We launched the rib and off we went to dive below the cliffs of Sligo bay – first day the visibility was astonishing >20m allowing us a Caribbean style of buddy monitoring – i.e. good as long as buddy can see you wave. Lots of nice walls, boulders with caverns and lobsters, crabs, lings, anemones and more. On Monday, joined by Danny – an ex-fireman, MCA qualified boat-handler and our cox for the rest of the week, the group was complete.

The weather was not bad but a bit windy so the Atlantic ocean didn’t let us go to more distant locations but it was good to research one area and focus on the differences between sites. Overall, diving with our own boat, filling the cylinders by our selves (with thanks to Francis from Sligo SAC who allowed us to use their facilities) gave the trip a real expedition feel. The gallons of Guinness, Lager (shame on me) and Irish whiskey gave the rest…

Coming back to the UK was also quite eventful as one of the wheels on the trailer decided that it didn’t like John’s driving and came off – flying across the road straight into the bushes. With thanks to the kind mechanic, Will, who replaced the broken bearings so we could catch the ferry and get back home with the car and with the boat (I would be sad to loose any of these museum pieces!)